Last week I repeated a poet’s remark that architecture is good if we want to take a second look. Is there more to see or a pleasing order or beauty beyond that first look? This is the first time I have shown shots of this project.
The photos take us to Quasqueton, Iowa, and a home designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright for Lowell and Agnes Walter, built 1949-1950, known as Cedar Rock.Â
The home is managed by the State of Iowa and open to the public, but it is not one that people in the West generally know.
Located on an 11-acre parcel, along the Wapsipnicon River, it was intended as a three-season home where Lowell Walter could enjoy his passion for motor boating. The style is Usonian, a post-war style developed by Frank Lloyd Wright that began with the Jacobs House in Madison, Wisconsin. The floors and roof are concrete and the walls brick.
The main space is called the garden room and has glass on three sides. Frank Lloyd Wright and his studio designed all the furnishings and selected all the accessories and fabrics. Features that are his hallmarks include the built-in furnishings, the repeat of geometric forms, the open plan, a compression of elevation relieved by height, the clerestory windows, and the prominent position of the fireplace. The color of the concrete floors is Cherokee red, a favorite of Wright.
The dining space is in a corner of the garden room. Docents at the home say Wright even selected the tableware.
The adjacent boat house is said to be the only one designed by Wright.
The home is now 70 years old. The boat house sustained some damage and has just been renovated, but overall it is well-cared for with all the remarkable furnishings intact.
So, do you want to take a second look? Is there more to see and take in than in your first examination?
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